Because of the great abundance of coal in the United States, methanol appears to be a fuel which will become attractive in price and abundant in quantity in future years. The reason that methanol will be in great supply is that there are processes for gasifying coal to form products that can be reacted to form methanol fuel.
When methanol is burned in an internal combustion engine, unburned methanol and partial oxidation products of methanol can be found in the exhaust gases. Although the impact of these materials from methanol fueled vehicles on air quality is not yet well defined, I attempted to develop a process for removing unburned methanol from an exhaust gas stream by converting such unburned methanol to carbon dioxide and water.
The method of treating an exhaust gas stream generated by burning methanol fuel in an internal combustion engine is more complicated than treating exhaust gases from a gasoline fueled engine because the methanol fueled engine operates at substantially lower exhaust gas temperatures. Thus, one does not have the contribution of higher thermal activity when attempting to treat exhaust gases from a methanol fueled vehicle.
In eliminating methanol, basically an oxidation reaction is carried out. The following four oxidation reactions are the principal reactions which can occur: EQU CH.sub.3 OH+1.50.sub.2 .dbd.CO.sub.2 +2H.sub.2 O [1] EQU CH.sub.3 OH+0.50.sub.2 .dbd.HCHO+H.sub.2 O [2] EQU 2CH.sub.3 OH.dbd.CH.sub.3 --O--CH.sub.3 +H.sub.2 O [3] EQU CH.sub.3 OH+O.sub.2 .dbd.CO+2H.sub.2 O [4]
Of these reactions, the one that is deemed most desirable is the reaction of equation [1] because this reaction produces the end products of carbon dioxide and water. The reaction of equation [2] results in the production of an aldehyde, whereas an ether is produced by the reaction of equation [3] and carbon monoxide by the reaction of equation [4].
No novelty study was conducted on the subject matter of this specification in the U.S. Patent Office or in any other search facility. I personally am unaware of any other teachings with respect to the treatment of methanol fueled vehicles as I will teach in this specification.